More concerned with foreign lease than toll

By chelsea j. samuel • csamuel@news-press.com • November 13, 2008

Southwest Florida residents don't have a problem with a potential toll rate increase on Alligator Alley. They have a problem with that increase's association with the potential leasing of Alligator Alley.

About 50 people attended a public hearing Wednesday evening to discuss the Florida Department of Transportation's proposal to raise tolls on Alligator Alley beginning in July.

"You can't really look at the toll increase without looking at the lease," said Jim Flanagan.

The toll rates would increase by 50 percent July 1, meaning that Sunpass rates would go from $2 to $3, and cash rates would go from $2.50 to $3.75.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2010, toll rates would increase by 3 percent annually, or by the Consumer Price Index, whichever number is higher.

"That's the least worst scenario," Flanagan said of the 3 percent increase.

The toll rates have been proposed to help the six companies bidding to lease Alligator Alley prepare their proposals, said Department of Transportation spokesman Dick Kane.

Department of Transportation District 1 Secretary Stan Cann said the money will fund transportation projects in Collier and Broward Counties.

These proposals from the six companies will help the Department of Transportation decide whether leasing the road is a financially sound decision.

"We will know how much these private companies are willing to put up in one single, lump-sum check," he said.

If the state decides not to lease the road, the toll rate hike may happen at the discretion of the Secretary of Transportation.

Aaron Knott said he could get behind the toll increase if the money went to pay for the operation and maintenance of the 78 miles of Interstate 75 between the toll plazas.

"Anything above the operation and maintenance of Alligator Alley is a tax," he said. "Are we so dumb we don't understand when we're getting taxed?"

About a dozen people protested the potential lease before the meeting.

"I don't think it's something we should be doing," said Carol Strolle, who handed teabags addressed to Charlie Crist to drivers along Sunshine Boulevard in Naples.

"This is our type of Boston Tea Party," she said.

State Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, said he thinks more people would be willing to pay the tolls if they know they'll be able to retain ownership of Alligator Alley. To raise tolls and then enter into a 50-year lease would "add insult to injury."

Aronberg, who is opposed to the project, has submitted legislation to stop the potential lease.

The Department of Transportation announced Wednesday that the six companies have four extra weeks to submit their proposals, which will allow for additional public comment meetings.

Aronberg said more time is only good for the Alley's opponents.

"Time is on our side," he said. "The more people find out, the less likely it is to happen."

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CTC note concerning the following article: As the budget worsens, the Alley becomes a fire sale for quick and easy cash to mend the deficit.  We continue our position:  South Floridians should not be saddled for decades to make up for the Governor's short-term budget fix.  The burden MUST be shared equally by all Floridians.                                             
Florida’s budget woes to worsen                

WMNF Evening News 88.5 FM  11/19/08  Mitch Perry

Florida’s budget woes are expected to get worse. Later this week, state forecasters are expected to announced that the current budget will fall short by as much as $2 billion.

Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, Alex Sink, has said that the state should hold a Special Session to deal with the worsening crises. New House Speaker Ray Sansome says the state can avoid the cost of a special session by tapping state reserves and dedicating the first two weeks of the regular session to finding deeper spending cuts.

But Florida Democratic State Senator Dave Aronberg says time is of the essence.

Earlier this year, the state avoided major budget reductions to the Medically Needy and Medicaid Programs by taking over $100 million from the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund. That’s money backed by a 1997 settlement with the tobacco industry. But the man who helped Florida get those dollars in a landmark lawsuit against the tobaaco industry a decade ago is critical of those raids.

Tampa Attorney Steve Yarrid spoke on WMNF’s Radioactivity program today with Rob Lorei.

The Tallahassee Democrat reports that the troubles on Wall Street have depleted the Chiles Fund by more than $500 million since earlier this year.

Meanwhile, a new Quinnipiac poll released this morning revealed somewhat contradictory information about the average Florida citizen. The poll found Florida voters “suprisingly upbeat” about their financial condition, with a majority saying their family finances being excellent or good. However, 59 percent say they are worse off than a year ago.

The poll also found that by a 55 to 30 percent margin, voters say they want to cut services rather than raise taxes to balance the budget. But voters don't like the across-the-board approach. By a 73 – 21 percent margin, voters prefer those cuts on a case-by-case basis.

Re-elected Democratic Sen. Dave Aronson said the state has to find ways to raise revenues that avoid budget cuts. Aronberg has been fighting against a proposed 50-year lease on Alligator Alley to foreign investors who would pay the state about $500 million in exchange for collecting an escalating schedule of tolls on the 78-mile artery between South Florida's east and west coasts. Aronberg says the state definitely needs to look at more creative ways of raising revenues, but that isn’t one of them.

Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, today told the St. Petersburg Times that two new possible places to raise revenues would be to collect sales taxes on items sold over the Internet and expansion of gaming in areas where the state currently allows it.

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Alley lease to foreigners a bad deal with appeal

By Frank Cerabino Palm Beach Post November 13, 2008                      

I had to give state Sen. Dave Aronberg a good talking-to.                             

"What do you mean you don't want foreigners to buy Alligator Alley?" I said. "Who are you worried about, Alligator-Qaeda?"

Aronberg, D-Greenacres, is trying to stop the state from selling a 50-year lease on Alligator Alley to foreign investors who will pay the state about $500 million in exchange for collecting an escalating schedule of tolls on the 78-mile artery between South Florida's east and west coasts.

Aronberg has submitted legislation to delay any lease deal for two years, and to ban foreign investors from controlling such a significant piece of Florida.

"When foreign investors own our infrastructure, it's a national security concern," he said. "Foreign interests don't have our national interests at heart."

But Aronberg's looking at this all wrong.

"This is just the start, Dave," I said. "Once we sell off Alligator Alley, we can unload the fishing rights on Lake Okeechobee, start some logging in the Ocala National Forest, and place some ads on the skin of the Space Shuttle."

Yes, the new motto of Florida is "Everything Must Go."

Shill, baby, shill!

Sounds good, in the short term

Aronberg's stuck on some quaint idea that because taxpayers paid to build the road, which wasn't even envisioned to be a toll road, they shouldn't now be the drivers who will get to pay the higher tolls to make the deal profitable for the foreign investors.

This type of thinking is so 2007. What's going on now is the "monetizing" of assets.

That's a highfalutin way of saying that we're looking to get quick cash in exchange for giving up something of long-term value. Sure, it's a bad deal in the long run. But it's got short-term appeal.

Crack addicts do these sorts of transactions all the time. So why not the state?

"They're even talking about privatizing the Lottery now," Aronberg said. "This is an example of term-limit politics. You have immediate gratification, and by the time the bills come due, you're out of office."

And when the tolls go up, you can't blame the politicians, because they aren't the ones raising them. Go dial up some European conglomerate, or wherever the benefactors of this deal might be.

The Alligator Alley deal, Aronberg said, would plug only one-eighth of the state's $4 billion deficit. So it isn't even a one-year fix. And it would give maintenance responsibilities to a company whose prime interests are stockholder profits.

"What incentives do they have to add guardrails?" Aronberg said. "They don't answer to taxpayers. And do people really want to see a French flag flying over Alligator Alley?"

Wait a minute, Dave. Only Republicans are allowed to bash the French.

I had to remind Aronberg that if we didn't sell off Alligator Alley to foreign investors, there'd be no other reliable buyers.

The only American company that made the short list of Alligator Alley bidders was the investment bank Lehman Brothers, which went belly up in September.

"If we lease Alligator Alley to an American company, we'd just get it back in the bailout," I said.

"It would end up being a public-private-public deal," Aronberg said.

Yeah, we'd get stuck paying for all the maintenance on the road for the next 50 years, and the American company, with the help of its well-placed lobbyists, would get a sweet deal on still being allowed to collect all the tolls on the roadway to bolster its struggling bottom line.

I do agree with Aronberg, that if we sell Alligator Alley, one of the basic joke premises won't make sense anymore:

"If you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you," Aronberg said.

Yeah, if you sell the road, "a bridge to sell you" wouldn't be absurd anymore.